Originally posted in December 2021:

2021 was a wild ride: High highs and low lows. I didn’t quite meet my reading goals for the year, but I got close enough given the circumstances. A brief-ish recap (skip ahead if you’re only here for the books!): We kicked off 2021 living in England under a national lockdown. January and February were bleak months – I wrote about it here – and upon reflection I don’t know how my husband and I didn’t have complete mental breakdowns. (I’m sure I came close.) In March the big kids returned to school, but Damon and I were still in lockdown with our toddler. As the weather improved, so did our spirits. Lockdown restrictions slowly eased, and we gradually got back to living, enjoying our hometown of Oxford as best we could. In mid-April we were allowed to travel and hit the ground running, desperate to make up for lost time. The next three months were a blur of castles and palaces and moors and Harry Potter. Highlights included trips to Yorkshire, the Lake District, Kent, Dover, the Cotswolds, several weekends in London, and a weeklong driving tour of Scotland. In July we packed up for our second international move during a pandemic in 11 months. Leaving England was difficult – I wasn’t ready to go, especially after Covid stole so much of our time there – but decamping to California for five weeks of R&R took the sting out of our departure.

High highs and low lows, stateside: CA sunshine, catching up with friends and family (some of whom we hadn’t seen in years), a miscarriage, moving back into our old home and fantastic neighborhood, a kitchen remodel, another pregnancy, sending Damon off to South Carolina for Nuclear Power School, Damon’s promotion to Captain, Covid… A note on Covid: All three kids and I got it. Kate had the sniffles and a fever for a day, and the older two kids were more or less asymptomatic. Though vaccinated, I was hardest hit. First trimester pregnancy + Covid while Damon was out of town was brutal, and though my community rallied around our family, this was another bleak, hard month. Emotions ran high and energy ran low during our seemingly interminable quarantine. But as this post is supposed to be about books, I’ll just say that the combination of exhaustion and illness and constantly simmering rage and resentment left me too mentally and physically drained to do much reading.

But anyway! Once Elisabeth was allowed to return to school, it was a sprint to the 2021 finish line. Soccer and swimming and a family-filled Thanksgiving and It’s a Boy! and holiday madness and a cancelled trip to CA but a lovely and low-key Christmas and now we’re here and the year is over and how did that happen!? I’m not going to say a word about 2022. No one say a word. Approach with caution, and maybe stock up on books in case you find yourself with some unexpected time at home…

2021 Year in Books

1) A Room with a View by E.M. Forster: A humorous British novel set in both Florence and the English countryside, with delightful characters, one of whom is portrayed by Maggie Smith in the film adaptation? Of course I enjoyed it. (I haven’t actually seen the film, but imagining Maggie as Charlotte Bartlett while reading was good enough for me.) Will leave the critique of Edwardian society for a real book club, but in the meantime, must remember to read more British lit.

2) Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll: Elisabeth went through a major Alice phase when she was younger – we read a gajillion adaptations and watched the Disney movie on repeat. Perhaps that’s why reading the unabridged version felt tedious and dull. However! Alice was written in Oxford and it was a great opportunity for the kids to connect their reading with our temporary hometown.

3) A Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight (audiobook): I have very little recollection of this audiobook. It must’ve been the kind of mediocre thriller I said I would stop listening to this year, but did not, in fact, stop listening to.

4) Beach Read by Emily Henry: Oh gosh it makes me cringe just thinking about it. I just shouldn’t read romances. Maybe you like them. I don’t. The dialogue is so awkward, the characters so contrived… Ugh. I know I’m not going to like books like this, yet I keep reading them. I have no explanation.

5) Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson: I LOVED this. One of my favorites this year – it’s delightfully weird. For some reason I had it in my head that this was a memoir, so imagine my surprise to discover this was about twins who burst into flames when they become stressed or angry. Not a memoir! I laughed out loud at the absurdity of some of these scenes but was surprised at the poignancy of the book overall. Wholly original, humorous, sweet and sad. The narrator’s voice was perfect, the writing smart but not pretentious. Highly recommend.

6) Alice Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll: I enjoyed this much more than Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Still nonsensical, but in a less grating way, if that makes sense?

7) Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson: This was one of my favorites as a kid (I don’t know what that says about me) and one of the books I’ve forced Elisabeth to read with me now that she’s old enough. Guess what? It’s still achingly sad! Elisabeth didn’t love it like I used to love it – it definitely feels dated. But the story is still beautiful and poignant and heartbreaking. Who knows, maybe Kate will love it when I force her to read it with me in a few years.

8) The Comeback by Ella Berman: Very much a book of the #metoo era, very readable, with more nuance than I expected.

9) Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin (audiobook): Can we get an editor over here? This book could have been cut by half. In theory, the plot – a woman randomly crosses path with her sister’s accused murderer from decades earlier and becomes obsessed with him – should’ve be interesting! But with multiple narrators both past and present, there was too much going on without any value added. This was super tedious and ultimately, boring. Skip it.

10) American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson: Compelling, tense novel.  I’d recommend!

11) White Ivy by Susie Yang (audiobook): Hated it. Every character was awful. Total waste of time.

12) Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: For a gothic horror novel I wasn’t particularly horrified at any point. Disgusted and a little creeped out, yes, but scared… no. And even considering the genre, the plot was so extremely far-fetched and nonsensical that I couldn’t get into it. (To be fair, it’s not a genre I’m particularly familiar with – so maybe it was actually good and I just don’t realize it. I’m open to that possibility.)

13) Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery: This book is simply lovely. I adored the original television movies, but I don’t know that I ever actually read the books as a girl. I’ve been looking forward to reading this with Elisabeth for a long time, even if she had to frequently take over because I got too choked up to read aloud. The writing is beautiful, and the characters so filled with goodness, that it felt like a breath of fresh air.

14) American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins (audiobook): The last book that I physically reacted to like this was Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward. This one was very, very difficult to get through. Tragic and tense, heavy but hopeful, it’s an extremely captivating and relevant book.

15) Group by Christie Tate: Ummmm…. Did any of the people heaping praise upon this book find it even remotely troubling? Because I did! Actually, I found it extremely troubling! Disturbing! Horrifying! An extremely unhealthy, inappropriate, and probably unethical therapist-patient relationship! If a grown woman after several years and a small fortune in group therapy is smashing flowerpots into her head after a breakup MAYBE SHE SHOULD FIND A NEW THERAPIST. Did that not occur to ANYONE involved with the publication of this memoir??? Even though this book made me wildly uncomfortable, I’ll admit that it would make a great book club selection. There’s a lot to discuss. In the meantime, if you don’t belong to a book club and want to read a really great book about therapy, try Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb. It’s was one of my favorite reads of 2020.

16) The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson: Larson is an excellent storyteller, and he delivers again with this deep dive into Churchill and the Blitz. I’d recommend any of Larson’s book, even if you’re not a nonfiction lover.

17) The Midnight Library by Matt Haig: I really wanted to like this, but it was disappointing and predictable.

18) Astrid Sees All (audiobook) by Natalie Standifor: Meh. The last few moments were shocking but the majority of the story was forgettable.

19) Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown by Anne Glenconner: Fantastic memoir! I loved Glenconner’s voice. She’s straightforward and funny (despite her own life being marred with tragedy) and offers a fascinating glimpse into the monarchy. Highly recommend for anyone who is obsessed with The Crown.

20) Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey: Another memoir, but a complete 180 from Lady in Waiting. Trethewey is a poet, and her memoir has a very lyrical quality to it. Hers is a heartbreaking and infuriating story, but I had so much more I wanted to know. Of course, it’s her story to tell, her processing of an unfathomable tragedy – but I had so, so many more questions I wanted answered.

21) The Jane Austen Society (audiobook) by Natalie Jenner: A sweet book about – can you guess? – a group of people who love Jane Austen. Okay, it’s a little deeper than that. Not as good as The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society but in the same vein.

22) The Divines by Ellie Eaton: Ugh. A book about a shocking event at a girls British boarding school should have been absolutely juicy, but this was a total letdown.

23) The Last Thing He Told Me (audiobook) by Laura Dave: Pretty good! Lived up to the hype! One of the less-mediocre thrillers I listened to this year.

24) The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab: Sadly, another disappointment. It had so much potential, but I thought it fell flat.

25) The Guest List (audiobook) by Lucy Foley: Another better-than-mediocre but not fantastic thriller. I preferred Foley’s The Hunting Party, but this had a decent twist.

26) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling: SPOILER (for the two people that haven’t read HP) OMG! SIRIUS DIES! I completely forgot this happens and it crushed me. I mean, I lost sleep over it. Not my favorite book in the series, but of course still totally engrossing. Elisabeth is as obsessed with the series as ever, and it was so fun reading these books while living in England and getting to see all the HP filming sights with the kids.

27) The 7-1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (audiobook) by Stuart Turton: What even was this book? Maybe if I had read this book instead of listened to it, or perhaps if I had listened to it when I was not preparing my family for an international move, I would have grasped what was going on. But as it was, I was a distracted and clueless listener and have absolutely no idea what was going on.

28) Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny: A cute, sweet story.

29) The Stranger in the Mirror (audiobook) by Liv Constantine: Not Constantine’s best, in my humble opinion. Another perfectly fine thriller to listen to while, say, packing up your life, but nothing extraordinary.

30) Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple: Loved it. I want to be Eleanor Flood’s friend. The book is funny and quirky and touching and sad but not overwhelmingly so and I adored it.

31) The Floating Feldmans by Elyssa Friedland: Pointless trash. Especially after a book as delightful as Today Will Be Different.

32) The Wrong Family (audiobook) by Tarryn Fisher: Fisher’s The Wives was absolutely bonkers so I was curious how this would compare. It was much more subdued than The Wives. And that’s a good thing. But still creepy and violent, if that’s what you’re looking for!

33) Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid: Daisy Jones and The Six is one of my favorite books of recent years, so I had high hopes for this. I enjoyed it well enough, but it wasn’t nearly as entertaining or poignant as Daisy.

34) Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary: Elisabeth never got into the Ramona books, so I was thrilled when James agreed to read this with me. What is there to say that hasn’t been said? Kids need characters they can relate to, and Cleary – the GOAT children’s author? – delivers. Kids have been reading Ramona books for 40 years, and I imagine they’ll be reading them another 40 more. (And now I’m wondering – who would you say is the GOAT?)

35) Falling (audiobook) by T. J. Newman: Whoa! This audiobook was an exciting ride! (Sorry, had to.) I literally rolled my eyes at the ending and parts were completely unbelievable (the poison plotline, anyone?) but I enjoyed it anyway.

36) Holes by Louis Sachar: This is another book I read with James. Truthfully, it was probably a bit mature for James’ age, but he was captivated. It’s truly masterful storytelling and a lovely story, in the end.

37) From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler: Another favorite from my youth that I insisted Elisabeth and I read together. While she has merely tolerated some of my other choices, she loved this. I think she sees a little bit of herself in Claudia, the underappreciated oldest sister who masterminded a runaway plan to the Met. I was elated to re-read this and enjoyed it as much as I did when I was 10. It’s entertaining, wholesome fun with some valuable life lessons thrown in for good measure.

38) The Push by Ashely Audrain: I hate that I read this book. Which is different from hating the book itself! I just wish I hadn’t read it. Parents of young children – don’t read this book. SPOILER: This book centers around a mother and her distant/possibly sociopathic daughter, whom she later suspects of intentionally killing her baby brother. It is upsetting and grief-filled and extremely difficult to read if you are sensitive to that kind of content. But by the time I realized I shouldn’t be reading this book, I was too invested. I needed closure! And I’ll say this – the book delivered closure. Disturbing, twisted closure, but closure! (As a side note, I can’t get over that in the acknowledgments the author credited her own children for her inspiration. I’m sorry – what? Your children inspired your book about a psycho, murderous little girl?!)

39) The Other Black Girl (audiobook) by Zakiya Dalila Harris: Not what I was expecting – I don’t know how to classify it. A thriller maybe? A bit dystopian? It was subtly creepy. I am not the target audience here, so open to other opinions!

40) The Plot (audiobook) by Jean Hanff Korelitz: The beginning of this book was so slow that when Covid interrupted my listening I completely forgot about it. I typically enjoy books about books, but this writing about writing felt… narcissistic? Self-indulgent? At least initially. But the story picked up halfway through and turned into quite the exciting thriller. I stayed up way too late to find out the ending.

41) Anxious People by Fredrik Backman: Everyone in my book club loved this. It’s clever and thoughtful, but I thought it lacked the tenderness and depth of A Man Called Ove. And while parts were humorous, I found some of the dialogue irritating. I was the outlier, though!

42) The Husbands (audiobook) by Chandler Baker: A very similar vibe to The Other Black Girl – but instead of black women in a white-dominated workplace, think high-powered career women in a man’s world. The husband-bashing was tiresome and cliché, hampered any legitimate societal critiques, and turned this thriller into an eye-roller.

43) Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar: I can’t believe this is the same author as Holes. I remember thinking Sideways Stories was HILARIOUS as a kid. And guess what – James thinks it is HILARIOUS. But it’s just really weird! And a bit surreal? Take Sammy, an insult-hurling, maniacally-laughing, malodorous boy who is actually… a dead rat disguised in layers of layers of raincoats. I think about Sammy a lot. But yeah, James has read it several times over. And so has Elisabeth. I guess 36-year-old women aren’t the intended audience.

44) We Met in December (audiobook) by Rosie Curtis: Perfectly pleasant if entirely unoriginal chick-lit that was just enjoyable and low-stakes enough to listen to while wrapping Christmas presents. The male narrator sometimes sounded like Jude Law, which was a plus.

45) The Last Anniversary (audiobook) by Liane Moriarty: I’ve said it before, but Moriarty is reliably entertaining, if not great literature. Her characters are likeable, and she always provides a good balance of humor and suspense. This was fairly tame compared to her other novels, but just fine for a not-too-deep distraction audiobook.

46) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling: Elisabeth and I are still all-in on the Harry Potter world. This one gets very dark and has a seriously creepy scene (again, that I had completely forgotten about!) but Elisabeth is mature enough to handle it. Totally child-dependent, though!

47) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: I’m going to be honest – I had never read Pride and Prejudice in its entirety until now. I know, I know! As a white woman in her thirties I should be an Austen fanatic! I’m working on it, okay? I remember reading some of Pride and Prejudice my junior year in high school – but look, I was busy that year and I probably I relied on the miniseries to pass my exam. (Not just pass, I’m sure I got an A.) But now I can say with certainty that I adore Mr. Bennet, Lizzie Bennet is a QUEEN, and I don’t know that anything I read this year was as shocking as when Lydia ran off with that scoundrel Mr. Wickham! Scandalous! (Have I redeemed myself yet?)

That’s it for 2021, Friends. Up next in 2022: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara and the final Harry Potter. Would love to hear your thoughts and recommendations. Cheers!